Mobile Threat Response Team

Trend Micro detected a new variant of Android Remote Access Tool (AndroRAT) (identified as ANDROIDOS_ANDRORAT.HRXC) that has the ability to inject root exploits to perform malicious tasks such as silent installation, shell command execution, WiFi password collection, and screen capture. This AndroRAT targets CVE-2015-1805, a publicly disclosed vulnerability in 2016 that allows attackers to penetrate a number of older Android devices to perform its privilege escalation.

We have been seeing attacks that spy on and steal data from specific targets on the mobile platform since late 2017. We discovered the malicious apps victimizing Android users in India, and believe a hacking group—one previously known for victimizing government officials—carried out the attacks. We identified these malicious apps as PoriewSpy (detected by Trend Micro as ANDROIDOS_PORIEWSPY.HRX). We also suspect that the group used malicious apps built using DroidJack or SandroRAT (detected as ANDROIDOS_SANRAT.A), based on similarities in their command-and-control (C&C) server. DroidJack is a remote access Trojan (RAT) that allows intruders to take full control of a user’s Android device when installed.

We uncovered a total of 53 apps on Google Play that can steal Facebook accounts and surreptitiously push ads. Many of these apps, which were published as early as April 2017, seemed to have been put out on Google Play in a wave. Detected by Trend Micro as ANDROIDOS_GHOSTTEAM, many of the samples we analyzed are in Vietnamese, including their descriptions on Google Play.

Their command-and-control (C&C) server points to mspace[.]com[.]vn. This, along with the considerable use of Vietnamese language, may indicate that the apps were from Vietnam. For instance, GhostTeam’s configurations are in English and Vietnamese. English will be the default language if the malware detects the geolocation to be outside Vietnam.

Android malware like ransomware exemplify how the platform can be lucrative for cybercriminals. But there are also other threats stirring up as of late: attacks that spy on and steal data from specific targets, crossing over between desktops and mobile devices.

Take for instance several malicious apps we came across with cyberespionage capabilities, which were targeting Arabic-speaking users or Middle Eastern countries. These were published on Google Play — but have since been taken down — and third-party app marketplaces. We named these malicious apps AnubisSpy (ANDROIDOS_ANUBISSPY) as all the malware’s payload is a package called watchdog.

We construe AnubisSpy to be linked to the cyberespionage campaign Sphinx (APT-C-15) based on shared file structures and command-and-control (C&C) server as well as targets. It’s also possible that while AnubisSpy’s operators may also be Sphinx’s, they could be running separate but similar campaigns.

We covered iXintpwn/YJSNPI in a previous blog post and looked into how it renders an iOS device unresponsive by overflowing it with icons. This threat comes in the form of an unsigned profile that crashes the standard application that manages the iOS home screen when installed. The malicious profile also exploits certain features to make iXintpwn/YJSNPI more difficult to uninstall.

We recently discovered a new variant of iXintpwn/YJSNPI (detected by Trend Micro as IOS_YJSNPI.A) that uses a signed profile to conduct different attacks compared to its predecessor. IOS_YJSNPI.A is extracted from either of the two app stores—hxxp://m[.]3454[.]com and hxxp://m[.]973[.]com. Based on our analysis, this new variant’s main purpose is not to damage users’ operating systems, but to lure users into downloading repackaged apps.

Security Predictions for 2020

Cybersecurity in 2020 will be viewed through many lenses — from differing attacker motivations and cybercriminal arsenal to technological developments and global threat intelligence — only so defenders can keep up with the broad range of threats.Read our security predictions for 2020.

Business Process Compromise

Attackers are starting to invest in long-term operations that target specific processes enterprises rely on. They scout for vulnerable practices, susceptible systems and operational loopholes that they can leverage or abuse. To learn more,
read our Security 101: Business Process Compromise.